Hey everybody!
This week was quite the party. Partly because we actually
threw a party.
So we have this group chat with all the moms in the ward
because like they love us and we play innebandy with their kids every other
week. A couple weeks ago we suggested that we should have a little Halloween
snack after innebandy on Tuesday the 30th and the moms thought it was an
awesome idea and they did what moms do best and blew it up into an awesome
party. Families came and decorated rooms with candy and activities for children
to participate in and the young men made a haunted house in the basement to
scare little kiddies and it was so fun. There must have been more than 100
people there including a good amount of nonmembers.
We also did a lot of normal proselyting activities this week
I promise.
So in Sweden they can't seem to get the idea that a holiday
on a specific date is to be celebrated on that day. Holidays like Easter,
Christmas, etc are like week long events. They've started to adapt Halloween
over the last 20 years or so and it's the same way. They know that Halloween is
on the 31st but still go trick-or-treating before and after. Huh.
Anyway, so the day after Halloween is called Alla Helgons
Dag (All Saints Day). It exists in America too but isn't observed as much. Here
in Sweden, families go out and light candles by the graves of their loved ones
who have passed away. On Saturday--technically after All Saints Day but as I
already mentioned, Swedish people don't seem to care--we went out and walked
around one of the bigger cemeteries in Gothenburg. It was only 17:30 but it was
already pitch black except for thousands of little lights strewn across rolling
hills and no one was saying a word.
It was a very powerful experience that makes you reflect on
the meaning of life. As Macbeth very appropriately describes it, our lives are
but a "brief candle."(Sorry, I don't know the citation but you can
trust me on this one). It was surreal to look upon all the candles and ponder
on the comparatively small impact each individual had made upon the world.
It was enough to feel a little discouraged concerning the
reality of mortality except for the unshakeable feeling that those of us who
looked upon the graves that night were not alone. Those people who had died
were yet alive in the world to come and we all will too. Though we are mortal,
this life is not the only one we have yet to live. Each of us will have the
opportunity to live forever because of the eternal nature of our spirits and
the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
So yes, Job. If a man die, he will live again.
Have a great week!
Love,
Äldste Cummings
1. "Halloween is always October 31st and no other day.
Thanks!" Finally, someone gets it.
2. We made some pizza for the kiddos at the party. Spooky.
3.
4. Cemetery on Alla Helgons Dag
5. That's right, I live here (pt 16).
6. When missionaries decide to make a jack-o-lantern.
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